Emily Calcraft

School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

PhD Student (History)

Emily Calcraft at graduation
Profile picture of Emily Calcraft at graduation
ECalcraft1@sheffield.ac.uk
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Thesis title: Education and Pacifism In Inter-War Britain 

This thesis explores how inter-war pacifists attempted to formulate a new social structure that privileged education in order to produce independent thinkers and eliminate international conflict. Education was used by pacifists in the negative sense ( i.e. to stop war), as well as in the positive sense ( to build a society where the likelihood of violence was nil). This imagined future  society relied on education, and more specifically schools, to disseminate values of class egalitarianism, gender equality, anti-imperialism, and mental wellbeing. This study explores the role of pacifist and educational ideologues like Bertrand and Dora Russell, and Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst. It also enquires about the role of pacifist educators in state schools, the methods that the  peace movement used to target children, the impact of campaigns from students in higher education, and the use of extra-curricular peace activities. 

Supervisors:

Publications:

Calcraft, E. (2025). ‘Playing fields not battlefields’: pacifism, non-violence and sport in inter-war Britain. Sport in History, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/17460263.2025.2452621

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17460263.2025.2452621#d1e102 

Conference papers 

‘New Schools’: Pacifist Pedagogy in Inter-War Britain, History of Education Society Conference (2024). 

‘The Natural and the Unnatural’: Antisemitic Portrayals of Jewish Gender and Sexuality in Weimar Germany, Forschungsstelle Weimar Conference (2023). 

Pacifism and Physical Education in Britain 1918-1939, History of Education Society Conference (2023) 

Book reviews 

Book Review of Sylvia Mergenthal’s ‘A Man Could Stand Up: Masculinities in British and Australian Literature of the Great War’ published in the Gender & History Journal (October, 2023). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-0424.12748 

Blog Posts 

‘The Pacifism of Pooh: A.A. Milne and the Symbolism of Winnie-the-Pooh’, History Matters Blog, https://historymatters.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/blog-archive/2023/the-pacifism-of-pooh (December, 2023). 

‘I am not Interested in the Coronation’: Similarities and Dissimilarities in Mass Observation’s 12th May Diaries from 1937 and 2023, University of Sussex Library Lookout and Mass Observation Archive, “I am not Interested in the Coronation”: Similarities and Dissimilarities in Mass Observation’s 12th May Diaries from 1937 and 2023. | University of Sussex – Library Lookout (May, 2024).

Qualifications
  • PhD History, University of Sheffield, 2024 - present
  • MA in Historical Research, University of Sheffield, 2022-2023
  • BA (Hons)  in History, University of Sheffield, 2019-2022 
Teaching interests

The Transformation of the United Kingdom, 1800-present 

Public engagement

Research Assistant: Professor Julie Gottlieb’s project on New Approaches to Teaching the History of Appeasement in the Classroom (with the Historical Association) in secondary school education, 2022-present. 

Appearance on the Sport in History Podcast, January 2025. 

Volunteer Archival Assistant at Mass Observation, 2023-2024